mothballs
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Growing up, restaurateur Andy Kalish associated two smells with Friday nights: his grandmother's chicken soup and mothballs in his grandfather's closet.
From Salon • Apr. 16, 2022
That system is long gone, relegated to the mothballs after the judging scandal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
From Seattle Times • Feb. 15, 2022
The September 1974 journal, dog-eared and smelling of pipe smoke and mothballs, included the first published reference to Morgan commissioning the timepiece.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 9, 2021
He wasn’t interested in anything that reeked of mothballs and dust.
From Washington Post • Nov. 29, 2021
It’s a winter cloak, not a cotton summer one, and it smells of mothballs.
From "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
